Two decades of broken promises, plant closings and stagnant wages caused a political earthquake among working Americans.

When NAFTA was debated in the early 1990s, proponents spoke glowingly about the wealth it would create. They promised it would lift up workers in Mexico, curb illegal immigration and create new jobs here at home.

Fourteen years later, 19,000 more Mexicans live in poverty, 10 million more undocumented workers live in the U.S. and several million U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

And our annual trade deficit has gone from $38 billion in 1992 to more than $800 billion today.

The Bush administration’s response? More of the same — job-killing trade agreements, failure to enforce labor laws, ignoring environmental standards.

Current U.S. trade policy is less about U.S. business and job creation and more about a global chase for cheap labor.

Faced with the facts that our trade policy has failed, free traders — Wall Street, elitist editors and the Bush administration — resort to name-calling.

They consider it “protectionist” to fight for labor, environmental and food-safety standards, but “free” trade to protect drug company patents and Hollywood DVDs.

If we can protect intellectual property with enforceable provisions in trade agreements — and we should — we absolutely can do the same for workers, the environment and product safety.

Job loss does not just affect the worker, or the worker’s family; it devastates communities. It hurts the local business owners — the drugstore, the grocery store, the neighborhood restaurant. It means lost revenue to the community — which hurts schools, fire departments, police departments.

The trade polices we set in Washington and negotiate across the globe have a direct impact on places like Toledo and Steubenville, Cleveland and Hamilton.

The only way that corporate interests can pass trade agreements is through raw political power. CAFTA, which passed by one vote — the slimmest margin of any trade agreement in the modern era — was held open, in the middle of the night, arms twisted to secure votes.

The fair-trade coalition established during CAFTA — the largest of its kind ever formed — is working hard to ensure that we do not repeat our trade mistakes.

Members from both houses are joined by the labor and business community, environmental and farming groups and faith-based organizations to set our country on a new trade path.

Fast track is set to expire at the end of this month. Five years ago, Congress abdicated its constitutional authority to participate in trade negotiations. Congress has an opportunity to reclaim its rights and renew its commitment to working Americans. We must not renew fast track.

There has been a lot of talk about pending trade deals with Peru, Panama and Korea, and a new outline for trade.

Unless these deals and that outline hold the administration responsible for establishing and strictly enforcing fair trade standards in the agreements, then there is nothing new on the table.

It’s the same old jalopy with a new coat of paint.

The Jordan Free Trade Agreement, which I supported, was held as the standard for how to do it right — how to include labor and environmental standards in a trade pact.

A year after the trade agreement passed, and with a new administration in the White House, former United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick sent a letter to Jordan’s trade minister stating that the administration had no plans to enforce any standards.

Six years later, Jordan is on its way to becoming the sweatshop capital of the Middle East. Human trafficking in the country is rampant, and the White House remains silent.

Workers and business owners have had it with more of the same. They are done with promises never realized. They are finished with sitting idly as communities are demolished by wrong-headed trade policies.

In November voters sent a message to every member of Congress that it is no longer safe to talk about jobs at home and belly up to free trade lobbyists in Washington.

The public gets it. Now it’s our turn.


Brown is a member of the Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.